I was very excited to read a book over break. Since the beginning of high school (aka more than three years ago), I've found it very difficult to find time for any reading other than assigned texts. So, with the prospect of two weeks filled with nothing except practice and naps ahead of me, I was eager to dust off one of those novels sitting at the top of my "To Read" list. Instead -- and I'm not ashamed to admit it (okay, I kind of am...) -- I somehow found myself reading Tyra Bank's fictional, fantasy-esq novel Modelland.
Tookie de la Crème is the protagonist of Modelland. She's an awkward teenage girl, living with cold parents who are obsessed with her gorgeous younger sister, Myrracle. The novel is set in a sort of alternate world, one in which places have names like "Bou-Big-Tique" and "Sans Color" and models are world-wide phenomenons with magic-like powers. The book follows Tookie as she attends the esteemed modeling school, Modelland, on the top of a mountain overlooking the entire world.
Although, at times one finds oneself trudging through messy, outrageous descriptions of oddly contrived situations and settings, and to be honest it can be hard to keep names like "Theopilius" separate from "Zarpessa" and "Shiraz Shiraz," and the parallels to Tyra's life are quite evident to anyone who knows anything about the retired supermodel, Modelland has a clear message.
Beauty doesn't have to be conventional.
People give Tyra a lot of crap for being a model and trying to do a lot of good. She's constantly ridiculed for being fat, or dumb, or too ambitious, or fake. But, as an "America's Next Top Model" aficionado, I am one of those people who truly like Tyra because you can't honestly say that she's a bad person. She's dedicated her life to redefining definitions of female beauty, first within the fashion industry and now outside of it.
And all of this got me thinking about society ideals of female beauty and how they change overtime. Next week, I will post solely on that subject, a the research I've begun to read is quite interesting so far. So, to end this post, I'd like to throw out this thought, a preview of next post: what is the catalyst for ideas of beauty to change?
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